


still adore you with your hands around my neck

by satan_cans_his_vegetables



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies), SPECTRE (2015), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, mentioned Bond/Madeleine, mostly just Q being salty, tried something other than smut today
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-10
Packaged: 2018-04-30 21:31:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5180507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satan_cans_his_vegetables/pseuds/satan_cans_his_vegetables
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Q would never have imagined that a man like James Bond would ever matter this much to him. When he had first met him, Q had found him to be stubborn and difficult to work with, but as time went on, Bond had worked his way through the young man's carefully constructed walls and nestled in a spot in his heart where it hurt just enough when something went wrong. But of course, Q would never tell him any of this. Some things were just better left unsaid. Still, the stolen glances and times when they stood just slightly too close to each other for comfort said volumes when words could not. There was something. There had been something. Now there was only Q. (Post-Spectre fix it fic)</p>
            </blockquote>





	still adore you with your hands around my neck

**Author's Note:**

> title is from 505 by Arctic Monkeys. basically just a fix it fic because the ending of Spectre made me really mad and disappointed a lot of people.

In the aftermath of the Spectre operation, Q had spent a lot of time alone in his makeshift office. It was quiet, and it was often cold, but it was the only place he could keep his head clear from the constant thought that plagued him. Bond. He had disappeared, and since M had ordered him to delete the files from SmartBlood, Q had no way of finding him. He had resigned himself to the idea that 007 would never come back. It was by no means a pleasant thought. To make matters worse, Bond had disappeared with Madeleine, and that left Q’s imagination to fill in the gaps of what had happened.

Of course, he and Bond had never been an item, or anything of the sort. Still, the mutually unspoken pining was always there, and seeing him with someone else got under his skin in a way nothing else ever could. It had gotten so far that Q had become a bit less of himself lately. He spent more and more time secluded in his office decrypting codes and files from the mess of the last month, and less time interacting with the rest of the world. He did his work, he went home to his cats, and repeated the process the next day. Nothing ever changed.

Q would never have imagined that a man like James Bond would ever matter this much to him. When he had first met him, Q had found him to be stubborn and difficult to work with, but as time went on, Bond had worked his way through the young man's carefully constructed walls and nestled in a spot in his heart where it hurt just enough when something went wrong. But of course, Q would never tell him any of this. Some things were just better left unsaid. Still, the stolen glances and times when they stood just slightly too close to each other for comfort said volumes when words could not. There was something. There had been something. Now there was only Q.

He stood up from his desk and stretched his aching muscles. He couldn't remember how long it had been since he'd last stood up, he remembered Moneypenny bringing him tea on occasion and Tanner dropping by to tell him the latest news on MI6's surveillance cleanup. Q sighed and gathered his things. Work had become dull without Bond there. As he jammed his laptop in his bag and muttered to himself under his breath, he heard the door creak open. Q's head snapped up, and silhouetted in the light from the hall was a familiar frame. 

"If you've come to ask for another car, I'm afraid I can't help you." Q muttered. He still hadn't quite forgiven Bond for what he'd done. After all, coming in and asking for a car before running off into the sunset with a mystery girl was not exactly very polite.

"That's not why I'm here." His voice was the same as always. Always smooth, always smoky and low. The easy swagger with which he walked made Q's chest tighten.

"Then why are you here?" 

The question hung heavy in the silence that surrounded them. Q shifted his bag into his other hand and gently set it down on his desk. He held Bond's stare and swallowed past the thickness in his throat. Q felt as though there was no air left in the room while Bond regarded him.

"Does there have to be a reason?"

"With you there does. There always is."

Q had become bitter once again. Bond visibly tensed the slightest amount and crossed the long space to Q's desk, his footsteps echoing throughout the empty room. In the suffocating silence, even those slight sounds were deafening. Bond slipped his hands into his suit pockets and stood there quietly once again.

"Oh for heaven's sake, Bond, say something!" All at once, Q exploded. He couldn't handle another moment of the intent stare. Immediately, Bond responded, though not in the way Q was expecting. He stepped around Q's desk, put one hand on the back of the lanky man's head and kissed him. In his shock, it took Q a few moments to react. He pushed at Bond's chest and stepped away from him.

"No. No, Bond, I'm not doing this now. I can't." Q shook his head. His words were more to convince himself rather than James. Bond nodded once. 

"I won't force you, then." He said simply. Q pushed his glasses up and ran a hand through his hair. How could he word this without sounding childish?

"If you're going to be with Miss Swann, then I can't allow you to kiss me. She cares for you," Not as much as I do, he thought. "-and I can't let you do anything that might hurt her." There. That had sounded convincing.

"Madeleine is dead." Bond said bluntly. "Assassinated." His face was emotionless and scarily blank, something Q only ever saw when the man was on a mission and going in for the kill. Still, Q couldn't find it in himself to be anything but angry.

"So what am I then, your second choice? Just someone to string along until the next girl shows up? I won't do it, Bond." His voice raised as his emotion slowly escalated out of check. "I can't watch you go off with another woman again. I've done enough of it in the last two years, and every time, it hurts more and more. But of course, that never seems to phase you! Because you never notice. You never have." Q threw his hands up. "We're all left here to clean up your mess while you run off with the next one on the line." He turned away and angrily pulled on his coat, brushing past Bond. He felt a hand tighten on his arm.

"Q." He stopped dead at the sound of his voice. "If you've quite finished, I'd like you to listen." 

Q turned slightly towards him. "I don't have time for this."

"Q, for Christ's sake, come off it and listen. I'm leaving tomorrow. I want you to come with me. I have two plane tickets to Geneva, and a house up in the mountains. Come with me, Q. Just for a little while. You don't have to stay long." He murmured. Q turned fully to face him and pulled his arm out of James' grip. 

"I can't leave. You know I can't. I answer directly to M, I can't just go whenever the feeling takes me." He muttered, though there was much less anger behind his words. He wanted to go, he really did, but for all he knew James would just find another girl and leave him behind. 

Bond shook his head and pulled Q flat against his chest. He leaned his head down, lips barely ghosting over Q's jawline. "Come with me. Moneypenny can cover for you." He murmured. Q's breath hitched as he looked up at the other man. "Please, Q. I'm asking you." He brushed his nose along Q's cheekbone and Q felt goosebumps prickle across his skin. 

"Bond, I-"

"No. I know what you're going to say, Q, and the answer is no. There won't be anyone else." Bond whispered. His breath was warm against Q's already flushed cheeks. "Just you and I and the mountains." He pulled back enough to see Q clearly. Flushed cheeks, messy hair, slightly steamed up glasses. This was what he wanted. He kissed Q again, passionate and deep as ever, and this time Q did not push back. He allowed himself to be drawn in and held ever so gently and kissed like it was the last thing either of them would ever do.

"I hate flying." Q whispered breathily when they had broken apart. Bond just smiled.

"I know."

Bond released him and slowly pulled away, though his hand lingered on Q's own for longer than perhaps necessary. It set every nerve ending in Q's skin alight. He followed Bond out of the building and smiled ever so slightly when he saw the car, the same one he had given him merely a month ago. Q got in the passenger's seat and slipped his phone from his pocket. He found Moneypenny's number and typed a quick text.

_Please feed my cats. I'm going on vacation. -Q_


End file.
